For all the ballyhoo about Black Friday, the crown jewel in the holiday shopping calendar has been something of a bust for retailers. That's led to a shift in how the day is being handled this season.
Target is hoping to lure this year's Black Friday shoppers with $3 toasters and coffeemakers, deep deals on high-definition televisions, and discounts of 50% on clothes and toys, according to a Web site that says it has received a leaked copy of the retailer's circular.
Wal-Mart is looking to jump-start holiday sales by expanding last year's $10 toy incentive tenfold, the company said Wednesday.
Foot traffic plummeted at stores this Saturday compared to last year but sales increased slightly, suggesting that shoppers are making fewer, more efficient trips for their holiday buying, according to a report released Tuesday.
With just over a week to go until Christmas, consumers have completed less than half of their holiday shopping - and millions have not even started yet, according to a report released Tuesday.
When stores report their November sales Thursday, analysts expect the scorecard will look pretty bleak once again.
The online holiday shopping season unofficially began Monday, with analysts expecting a flat performance versus last year in the face of the weak U.S. economy.
Stocks got hammered Monday, as investors bailed out following confirmation that the U.S. is mired in a recession and indications that it's likely to continue for some time.
Happy Cyber Monday! If the crowds on Black Friday were any indication, it looks like consumers will be busy surfing the Web for deep discounts as well.
Stores and online merchants were busier this weekend than they were a year ago, according to figures out Sunday, but signs persist that holiday shopping will suffer in the weakest economic climate in decades.
For all the ballyhoo about Black Friday, the crown jewel in the holiday shopping calendar has been something of a bust for retailers. That's led to a shift in how the day is being handled this season.
Target is hoping to lure this year's Black Friday shoppers with $3 toasters and coffeemakers, deep deals on high-definition televisions, and discounts of 50% on clothes and toys, according to a Web site that says it has received a leaked copy of the retailer's circular.
Wal-Mart is looking to jump-start holiday sales by expanding last year's $10 toy incentive tenfold, the company said Wednesday.
Foot traffic plummeted at stores this Saturday compared to last year but sales increased slightly, suggesting that shoppers are making fewer, more efficient trips for their holiday buying, according to a report released Tuesday.
With just over a week to go until Christmas, consumers have completed less than half of their holiday shopping - and millions have not even started yet, according to a report released Tuesday.
When stores report their November sales Thursday, analysts expect the scorecard will look pretty bleak once again.
The online holiday shopping season unofficially began Monday, with analysts expecting a flat performance versus last year in the face of the weak U.S. economy.
Stocks got hammered Monday, as investors bailed out following confirmation that the U.S. is mired in a recession and indications that it's likely to continue for some time.
Happy Cyber Monday! If the crowds on Black Friday were any indication, it looks like consumers will be busy surfing the Web for deep discounts as well.
Stores and online merchants were busier this weekend than they were a year ago, according to figures out Sunday, but signs persist that holiday shopping will suffer in the weakest economic climate in decades.
Holiday shoppers continued their trek to malls and big-box stores Saturday, amid early indications of slightly higher Black Friday sales to kick off the season.
Black Friday appeared to start strong this year, but analysts warned that the robust start to the critical holiday shopping period could fade by midday.
Merchants know it's all or nothing when the clock strikes 12.01 a.m. Friday.
In five short days, it could be the beginning of the end for some of the nation's malls.
Judging from a leaked ad for day-after-Thanksgiving sales, major stores will tempt shoppers - whose help is desperately needed to bolster the economy - with huge discounts.
Faced with a dismal climate for consumer spending, Richard Baker, a real estate mogul turned boy wonder of retailing, has set in motion a dramatic shakeup of his crown jewel, the Lord & Taylor department store chain.
Retailers shouldn't write off the 2007 holiday shopping season just yet. Consumers are set to bag $60 billion worth of merchandise over the next seven days, experts say.
A late surge by shoppers may not have been enough to save the Christmas shopping season.
Malls were open around the clock and stores came through with huge discounts - but it was unclear whether a last-minute shopping frenzy would put retailers over the top.
Some 35 million Americans have yet to start shopping for holiday gifts - meaning that the next seven days could make or break many retailers' Christmas season.
Best Buy, the No. 1 electronics retailer, posted much better-than-expected third-quarter profit and sales Tuesday, which it attributed to an extra sales reporting week last month and new store openings.
It was considered a retailing masterstroke - the $11 billion acquisition of the May Department Store Company by Federated Department Stores to form what is now known as Macy's. The 2005 merger created the first national department store chain and gave Macy's unprecedented clout with suppliers. Macy's Chief Executive Terry Lundgren, considered the merger's architect, was initially lauded as a visionary. Then the trouble started.
After getting off to a fast start last month, holiday sales at some of the nation's largest retailers have slowed to an excruciatingly slow pace and mall traffic has dropped dramatically.
A generally modest November employment report is due Friday from the Labor Department, and don't be surprised to find weakness in an area where you'd expect strength this time of year: the local shopping mall.
Are the nation's retailers giving away the store?
Retailers are still mulling the results from the first weekend of the holiday shopping season. But the outlook is still murky
Although deep discounts brought out much bigger crowds of holiday bargain hunters, a major retail trade group said Sunday that shoppers actually spent less money this year over the crucial Thanksgiving weekend.
U.S. stocks opened flat Monday on reports of a good start to the holiday shopping season, but continued worries about the mortgage market could temper any gains.
Happy Vendredi Noir! Or Schwarzer Freitag! Or Viernes Negro!
Nautica, the sportswear brand with the seafaring theme, is facing the prospect of reduced selling space for its products at some large department stores, Fortune has learned.
Wal-Mart, clearly annoyed that some Web sites are leaking its much-anticipated Black Friday circular weeks in advance, is threatening legal action if those sites do it again this year.
Americans aren't in the mood to spend extravagantly this holiday season.
Shoppers are willing to spend more money than ever online, but when it comes to finding luxury goods on the Web, they're getting shortchanged.
Mother's should prepare to be showered with gifts this year for Mother's Day as many consumers plan to increase their spending, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation.
Netflix and Amazon be warned: "Click-and-mortar" retailers like Sears.com and JCPenney.com showed the most improvement online this holiday season, an industry report said Wednesday, though they still lagged well behind the big "pure-play" Internet retailers.
A last-minute buying binge may have delivered a stellar final weekend of holiday sales but total retail sales gains for the 2006 holiday shopping period still fell short versus last year.
If this year's Black Friday deals left you breathless, prepare for a more aggressive onslaught of heavy discounts as anxious retailers pull out the stops in the final make-or-break weekend of the 2006 holiday shopping season.
With Christmas just four days away, the 2006 holiday shopping season is shaping up for a nail-biting finish after the latest industry survey released Monday showed millions of shoppers still haven't even started buying their gifts.
With Christmas exactly a week away, the 2006 holiday shopping season is shaping up for a nail-biting finish after the latest industry survey released Monday showed millions of shoppers still haven't even started buying their gifts.
Long lines, crowded stores and parking lots filled to the brim are only some of the challenges holiday shoppers face in the winter months.
'Tis the season to be jolly, and it's also the time to go shopping for many Americans. From California to the Carolinas, Americans are braving crowds and long lines in stores as they gear up for a holiday season that seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year.
Stocks slipped Friday in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, as investors focused on rising oil prices and reports from the nation's retailers about the start of the crucial holiday shopping season.
Retailers expect to see a flurry of sales in the last two days before Christmas, especially as many more shoppers this year say they will be buying their gifts later than ever.
U.S. consumers bought less than expected in November, according to a government report Tuesday, although a drop in gasoline prices actually led to some of the decline in spending.
Fine jewelry may shape up to be one of the best bargains of the holiday season as retailers offer deep discounts amid soaring precious metal prices.
The verdict on how retailers fared in the first month of the crucial holiday shopping season: disappointing, given all the hype about a robust start.
Cyber Monday, the online retail world's version of Black Friday, got off to a busy start as many holiday shoppers logged on at work and trolled the Internet in an effort to bag a few more bargains.
Retail sales are expected to jump 22 percent to nearly $28 billion over the Thanksgiving weekend, a retail group said Sunday, which would be a welcome relief to stores worried about a sluggish start to the holiday shopping season on Black Friday.
Holiday shopping season has kicked off. And while sales brought shoppers out early on Black Friday, those savings don't always keep wallets full during the holidays.
Shoppers braved long lines and chilly temperatures to hunt down the juiciest deals Friday, with a retail group forecasting higher sales for the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season.
Consumers are clearly in the driver's seat as nervous retailers get set to kick off the "official" start of the holiday shopping season on Friday.
Tired of swarms of shoppers, snaking check-out lines and the endless quest for parking?
Here's a twist to the variety of Black Friday gimmicks retailers are coming up with this year: department store chain Macy's will actually pay shoppers -- with free gift cards, not cash -- to shop at its stores the day after Thanksgiving, according to a report in USA Today.
While the "official" start to the 2005 holiday shopping season kicked off for most retailers on "Black Friday," or the day after Thanksgiving, online merchants have their banner day on "Cyber" Monday.
Even in the world of J. Crew and Target, Terry Lundgren believes there's a place for the good old department store.
Dazzling holiday decorations and children waiting to see Santa helps Asha Hope from Illinois get into the spirit of the season when she's shopping for gifts.
As Black Friday goes, so goes the entire holiday shopping season, right?
Forget about Black Friday. Many retailers, especially the department store chains, are already chopping and slashing prices in a frantic bid to draw bargain-hungry shoppers and their crucial holiday dollars.
One of the highlights of the year for Brad Martin is surely the golf outing, named after him, that occurs every autumn in Birmingham, Ala. The express purpose of the Brad Martin Golf Invitational, ...
What do you get when you take two big retail dinosaurs and morph them together? One really big dinosaur.
After a tepid start to the holidays, it was the late-season bargain hunters, strong gift card redemptions and deeper discounts after Christmas that apparently bailed out the nation's retailers.
Amazon.com and Sears knew how to treat their online customers right, while Payless ShoeSource and Safeway have lessons to learn, a study said Wednesday.
Shoppers unabashedly whipped out their credit cards over the 2004 holiday shopping season, according to the leading issuers MasterCard and Visa, as sales remained robust right up to Christmas Eve.
With just one weekend left before Christmas, this is make-or-break time for the nation's retailers.
Holiday sales rung up on Visa credit and debit cards continue to show strength, with a 16.1 percent gain in the week ended Dec. 12 compared with the same week in 2003, the spending card company said.
Retail sales rose an anemic 2.8 percent in November, although there is little evidence those numbers represent an early indication of a poor Holiday shopping season, according to a study.
The nation's shoppers were out in force this weekend, with double-digit percentage increases seen at both brick-and-mortar stores and online, and an estimated total of $22.8 billion in sales, reports indicated Sunday.
Two reports issued Saturday indicate that shoppers are out in force this holiday weekend, spending an estimated $8 billion on Black Friday, although the nation's No. 1 retailer isn't seeing as much traffic as it thought it would.
Rumors of the death of the department store, according to Terry Lundgren, have been greatly exaggerated. As CEO of 75-year-old Federated Department Stores (parent of Macy's and Bloomingdale's), he ...
The last thing retailers want for Christmas is bored shoppers.
What do you do when you see a shiny "Penney" on the street? Some say you should pick it up and rub it for good luck.
Shares of Kohl's hit a 4-week low Thursday after Smith Barney Citigroup downgraded the department store chain and slashed its price target on the stock on concerns that the company's "competitive advantages are waning."
Wal-Mart's upside sales surprise, strong results from luxury retailers and better-than-expected performance from specialty apparel stores suggested Thursday that Santa came through for retailers in the holiday season.
Marie LaTortue loves shopping the way Michael Jackson loves plastic surgery: truly, madly, deeply. Every few months, Marie goes on a binge, hitting the malls in a state of giddy determination, drop...
Once the receipts are tallied, this holiday shopping season may prove to be the worst in a generation. The economy is in recession, spirits have been depressed, the weather's been too warm and stor...
November
This year, shoppers will buy $28 billion worth of goods on the Internet, presumably because they relish the convenience of not leaving home and they believe the Web's promise of offering the lowest...
If you thought the quality of the online shopping experience last Christmas was criminal, it turns out you weren't that far off: In July, seven online retailers--including CDnow, KBkids.com, and To...
These days, you can pretty much throw a rock in any direction and hit a forecaster predicting that this year's online holiday shopping season will be the biggest one yet. Sure, the numbers are impr...
One thing you can say for sure about the party at Saks Fifth Avenue's flagship store on the night of Sept. 9: It's not how folks entertain in Alabama. You can start with the 6-foot-tall drag queen ...
Who does Sears, one of America's most admired retailers, consider its most fearsome competitor? Kmart? J.C. Penney? Wal-Mart? No, it's Kohl's.
To borrow from Auntie Mame, if department stores are a banquet, then I was starving to death. Since I live in New York City, people expect me to know the store scene inside and out, but I always em...
Surf's up, skinflints: The World Wide Web is fast becoming the best place to shop for bargains. Savvy online shoppers are already getting sweet deals on life insurance, airline tickets, cars, compu...
TO THE FLASH of pulsing strobe lights and amid vases of cascading white orchids, Allen Questrom, CEO of Federated Department Stores, is dancing. The occasion is the Fashion Institute of Technology'...
EVERY SO OFTEN you've got to say the heck with all those brokerage reports, newsletters, and other materials that entire forests died for. Let's face it, there are only three sure ways to beat the ...
I USED TO BUY everything I wanted and never worried about price,'' says Melba Turner. No more. For the Turners, both 31 -- Melba is an accountant and Jerome is a marketer -- life has become one big...
Few who lived through a Crazy Eddie commercial could forget the message, shrieked at TV audiences by a half-crazed-looking pitchman for the now defunct New York-area discounter: ''Our prices are in...
Tinker Simmons always snares her bargain. She employs surveillance: she stalks unsure shoppers in her favorite outlet stores and, when they put back a sale item, she moves in. Plus counterintellige...
No one, not even the most grizzled veteran of the holiday shopping wars, is likely to forget the past few months. Kamikaze sales nosediving right through the tender heart of the Christmas season. V...
IN OCTOBER, David Glass, conductor of retailing's hallelujah choir, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Arkansas, treated a lunchtime gathering of merchants to some sour notes. He predicted that w...
IF AMERICANS are born to shop, the Japanese seem condemned to spend. Prices in Japan are among the highest in the world. An apple can set you back two bucks, dinner for four at a traditional Japane...
THE ONLY BARGAINS found in department stores these days appear to be the stores themselves. Long before the market crash, such retailers as Allied Department Stores, Associated Dry Goods, and Feder...
''I AM AN OPERATIONS GUY,'' the man insisted just three weeks before making his third pass at Gillette, the razor blade and toiletries giant he has been stalking since last November. Revlon Chairma...
THE DEPARTMENT store, that showcase of everything from washing machines to perfume, has long been the fabulous invalid of retailing. Like a Broadway play, it costs more to produce than many custome...
YOU'D THINK Leslie Wexner would slow down now that his company, a $2.5- billion-a-year collection of women's clothing stores called the Limited, is 100 times bigger than it was ten years ago and he...
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